On February 9th the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education hosted a forum focusing on Academic Leadership. Carrick Institute had commented in its report on the first round of Leadership Grants offered in 2006 that a significant number of applications were based on concepts of Leadership that were tentative or underdeveloped. The February Forum was designed to take dialogue about the concept of Leadership in Higher Education forward. Dr Duncan Nulty from GIHE was amongst the 100 or so participants who attended the forum and provided the following notes and reflections.
The event comprised presentations from Emeritus Professor Kwong Lee Dow and a panel of four academics including Professor Ian O'Connor, Professor Shirley Alexander from UTS, Dr Helen McGillivray from University of Queensland, and Cheryl Paten, from Environmental Sciences at Griffith each of whom offered short vignettes about academic leadership. These presentations were followed by an opportunity to attend two workshops amongst a choice of eight. Emeritus Professor Adrian Lee wound up the forum with a reflective summary on the day.
The panel focused on several themes around Leadership in learning and teaching including: 'closing the loop' so that worthwhile initiatives move from planning and policy into practice; focusing on outcomes and 'embedding the activities and outcomes of enthusiasts' into mainstream practice; moving the focus of attention on learning and teaching issues from the periphery (where it is) to the centre; and moving from leadership associated with projects to broader and more pervasive vision that includes strategies not only for how initiatives can be implemented but how they can be sustained.
Professor Kwong Lee Dow focused on four issues around the nature and context of Academic Leadership: Leadership takes place in a system: Leadership must deal with issues of scale and complexity; Leadership takes place within and over a massive infrastructure; and Leadership occurs within highly layered organisations.
In commenting on Structural Issues, Professor Dow observed that while interactions between people within the layers in higher education organizations such as the 'nebulous' group called the senior executive; Deans and PVC's; Heads of School; Program Convenors; lecturers in charge of courses and those undertaking assessment and supervision is generally good, interactions across all layers is generally not so good. The setting of a tone at the top must be based on knowledge of the culture below. There is a responsibility at each level to be tuned-in to other levels with all levels sharing responsibility for being pro-active in this sharing. It was noted that AUQA has drawn attention to this commenting that while (in general) systems, policies and procedures in universities are okay, there is a query about how these translate effectively into actions on the ground?
Professor Kwong also suggested somewhat provocatively that there is a place for challenging directly the assertions that we academics make regarding our roles, resources, students and student learning. Gathering data to demonstrate the quality of teaching is a criterion for promotion and advancement. Metrics are required and we need to pay attention to them. However, we need more and better metrics that are less atomistic - we need measures which are more systemic.
Professor Kwong's paper included a quote from Amanda Sinclair (2005, Doing Leadership Differently) a key point of which was that we all have a role in leadership: "There is leadership - potentially - in most actions and sometimes it is the most common of actions in which we can exercise extraordinary leadership". However, there IS a need to systematically develop leadership (just as one would learn how to teach). There are two sides to this: the rational and the 'human/ emotional/ relationship based' Relationship management is vital and the foundation of this is trust. Thus, words like engagement, flexibility and retention are part of the new respectful language of employers and leaders.
On a personal note, Cheryl Paten made An inspirational contribution which left me wondering how to apply what she'd said. "Leadership requires a premise of hope, a premise of future." She went on to show us the state of the global eco-system.
Next she asked:
- Who's behind you?
- Are they learning your techniques?
- Will your knowledge retire with you?
For me this was powerful: what is the legacy we are each creating? What benefit will each of us leave behind? And thus, how can each of us personally be sure to make more impact - and a more sustainable impact even if we are not there to drive it ourselves? That's a message for us all which ties back to Amanda Sinclair's 2005 statement regarding leadership being something we all can do all the time.